


60 Words for 60 Cases, Round 2

by spacemutineer



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Ficlet Collection, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-08-31
Updated: 2017-11-03
Packaged: 2017-11-13 06:30:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 24
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/500511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacemutineer/pseuds/spacemutineer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>My second collection of 60-word ficlets, at least one for every canon Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story, written for the LJ community <a href="http://sherlock60.livejournal.com/">sherlock60</a>.  Join us!</p><p>For convenient ease of reading, try this link for <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/500511?view_full_work=true">all the ficlets on one page</a> or the <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/500511/navigate">chapter index</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Gloria Scott

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collection of 60-word ficlets, each inspired by a canon ACD Sherlock Holmes story and crossposted at the LiveJournal community [sherlock60](http://sherlock60.livejournal.com/). Our comm is a great way to read through the original cases -- this time through in chronological order. Come join us if you're at all interested. Even if you don't write with us, come for the great variety of fic to read. Everyone does something different, and it's a lot of fun!
> 
> Looking for a specific story? Use the [chapter index](http://archiveofourown.org/works/500511/navigate) to find it, or view [all the ficlets on one page](http://archiveofourown.org/works/500511?view_full_work=true).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excited to be starting back up with everyone for another run through the canon! The angst fairy continues visiting, so I'm going with it.

**[The Gloria Scott](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_'Gloria_Scott'): Over**

To think he asked me to read it aloud. I thought I was helping him. 

When it was over, he stared at his fists in his lap, silent.

"Victor?" I ventured a hand out, but he jumped up to stand.

"No, don't! Please don't." He still wouldn't meet my eyes. "I... I think you need to leave."


	2. The Musgrave Ritual

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A matched set for this week. I am having so much fun this time through. Thanks to everyone for playing and reading along with me!

**[The Musgrave Ritual](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Musgrave_Ritual): Treasure x 2**

He panted from the effort. "Can you see it?"

"See what?" Rachel dipped the lamp down into the stale air of the pit. "Wait, there's a box, a wooden chest. Richard, what is it?"

Brunton grinned and knelt. "It's a treasure, fy anwylyd, a secret well kept. And we are the only souls in the world who know it exists." 

///

Watson's gawked openly as soon as I opened the lid. There was no ignoring a treasure trove so eagerly sought. My biographer was predictable in the best way.

Inside their slumber chest, my pretty little problems glistened. I dug beneath the layers of gold to pull out the gem I wished him to see, a peculiar but crowning achievement.


	3. A Study in Scarlet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The angst fairy had a lot of magic dust to sprinkle on me this week. Be warned.

**[A Study in Scarlet](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Study_in_Scarlet): Words**

Words are chosen carefully by many, but writers select words as others select fruit, picking only the best, most apt of specimens. 

These words were horrible. I should have been prepared, given his dark history, countenance, and carriage. Still, it was chilling. 

Watson's lost mates were _"hacked to pieces"_. 

He never spoke of them again. Certainly I never asked.


	4. The Speckled Band

**[The Speckled Band](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Speckled_Band): Vocabulary**

I mentioned the danger, but he didn't flinch. 

"Can I be of assistance?"

All I could manage was honesty. "Your presence might be invaluable."

"Then I shall certainly come," he said, nodding definitively, steel in his voice. 

His bravery, open loyalty, his true friendship left me without adequate vocabulary. 

"It is... very kind of you," I stammered. 

Watson only smiled.


	5. The Resident Patient

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holmes shows up forty-five minutes late for his meeting at Baker Street with Watson, Dr. Trevelyan, and Inspector Lanner, keeping everyone waiting.

**[The Resident Patient](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Resident_Patient): Late**

My pocket watch comes out once more. Half three. He's quite late now.

The inspector taps his foot to an anxious rhythm. Trevelyan's back twisting at his fingers again after another refusal of brandy or water. He could use the reinforcement.

The latch opens. Twenty to four. I begin to worry Holmes may be somewhere in need of reinforcements himself.


	6. The Noble Bachelor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originates from Holmes' quote: "This looks like one of those unwelcome social summonses which call upon a man either to be bored or to lie."

**[The Noble Bachelor](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Noble_Bachelor): Summons**

The most unwelcome summons had already come, posted despite the fact the groom lived at my address to inform me in calligraphy on fine paper of an event I'd been dreading. 

In the end, I was called upon both to be bored and to lie. I departed after an interminable ceremony and my required words. 

"Mr. and Mrs. Watson, congratulations."


	7. The Second Stain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originates from this dialogue between Lestrade and Holmes:   
> _"We've got it all clear as if we had seen it."  
>  Holmes raised his eyebrows.  
> "And yet you have sent for me?"  
> "Ah, yes, that's another matter -- a mere trifle, but the sort of thing you take an interest in -- queer, you know, and what you might call freakish. It has nothing to do with the main fact -- can't have, on the face of it."  
> "What is it, then?" ___

**[The Second Stain](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Second_Stain): Trifle**

"A mere trifle." Hardly. 

He realized this anomaly mattered, if not how. Lestrade is a decent bloodhound; he often can scent a clue's importance even if he lacks the acuity to discern what that importance may be. 

The Inspector knew the second stain raised a pointed but unknown question, and he knew enough to summon me to provide the answer.


	8. The Reigate Squires

**[The Reigate Squires](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Reigate_Puzzle): Astonishing**

"Extraordinary." "Astonishing." "Genius."

Superlatives piled upon superlatives. Telegrams piled upon telegrams. Worthless words and empty praise. What was the point of any of it?

Another knock jolted my attention back to the door. More dismal felicitation, undoubtedly. I threw my best obscene French insults to repel my intruder, but the handle turned anyway.

"Holmes?"

No. Impossible. Couldn't be.

"Holmes?"

"W-Watson?"


	9. A Scandal in Bohemia

**[A Scandal in Bohemia](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Scandal_in_Bohemia): Without**

He sees and hears, but never fully observes, my dear Watson. That is for the best. After such a long separation, I am relieved he could not decipher the meaning behind my words.

"I am lost without my Boswell," I said, a more gentlemanly phrase than the true response which came upon me first.

_"I have been lost without you."_


	10. The Man with the Twisted Lip

**[The Man with the Twisted Lip](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Man_with_the_Twisted_Lip): Morning**

The overnight shift dragged on. Bradstreet rubbed at his eyes as the first rays of morning light peeked in. He envied the sleeping prisoners. It would be hours more until he'd have that privilege.

A constable knocked for his attention. "It's Mr. Holmes, sir."

 _Sherlock Holmes? He's certainly up with the sun today,_ Bradstreet thought. _Well, this should be amusing._


	11. The Five Orange Pips

**[The Five Orange Pips](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Five_Orange_Pips): Pride**

Holmes framed his pain as petty insult, something detached and superficial, wholly separate from the depths of his heart. Even then, he strove to maintain his affected demeanor, attempting to fool himself and me into believing in the aloof machine.

"It hurts my pride," he said. 

I allowed the lie. Losing one's first client, or one's first patient, leaves scars.


	12. A Case of Identity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comes from Watson's line, "A professional case of great gravity was engaging my own attention at the time, and the whole of next day I was busy at the bedside of the sufferer." The case in IDEN is so hateful that I dreamed of peeking into Watson's medical drama instead.

**[A Case of Identity](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Case_of_Identity): Bedside**

The boy looked minuscule in his bed. Skinny, red-flushed limbs contrasted against the white sheets, too hot to be covered. 

"If the fever breaks by nightfall, I think we can trust in Michael's recovery." 

"And if it doesn't, Doctor?" His mother's eyes were as bright and fearful as his.

Watson wrung out another cool compress. At either bedside, they waited.


	13. The Red-Headed League

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's such a melancholy (UST-laden, if your mind leans that way) moment when Holmes and Watson reluctantly separate after their afternoon musical rapture together. But Watson is still married, no matter how much the magic of his life with Holmes calls to him, and the good doctor is nothing if not responsible.

**[The Red-Headed League](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Red-headed_League): Want**

In the light of day, Watson avoided saying it. There was little use in hiding his thoughts from me.

"You want to go home, no doubt, Doctor."

Want was the wrong word, but he nodded anyway.

"It would be as well."

I vanished into the throng so as not to watch him go. I never was much good at sharing.


	14. The Dying Detective

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set after the case, after Holmes' celebratory/recovery dinner with Watson. I needed someone to tell Holmes off for me for the terrible things he does here.

**[The Dying Detective](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Dying_Detective): Hired**

Coming back late, I found her waiting.

"I see you're quite merry."

"I see you are not."

"Mr. Holmes, I'll say only this. It's one thing to treat me so. I'm just your hired help."

_"Mrs. Hudson."_

"But Dr. Watson is your friend. He holds you in his heart. Don't play so casually with things you only think you understand."


	15. The Blue Carbuncle

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A bit both silly and violent, but I couldn't resist.

**[The Blue Carbuncle](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Blue_Carbuncle): Red**

The trail of red gore left in the wake of glistening blue was long. The first to fall was the stone's discoverer himself, ambushed as he slept with his find tucked under his pillow. His murderer met a face full of acid, and her ruin was hardly the last or most gruesome. One victim of the carbuncle was even eaten.


	16. The Valley of Fear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **For Chapters 1-7:** I think Douglas was a fan! Love that.
> 
>  **For Chapter 8-Epilogue** : Faced with Moriarty's work here in this story, Holmes knows he is in for the long haul. It's longer than he could ever have imagined then.

**[The Valley of Fear](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Valley_of_Fear), Chapters 1-7: Renowned**

"You're a smoker yourself, if I remember right," said Douglas, gesturing his cigar at me.

Paired with his interest in my "historian" companion, it was obvious: the man read Watson's stories. He had read our lives, and enjoyed them. I knew his secret, but Douglas knew _us_.

I felt oddly disadvantaged, unnaturally exposed. The renowned historian, however, seemed quite pleased.

**[The Valley of Fear](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Valley_of_Fear), Chapter 8-Epilogue: Time**

_"Do not tell me that we have to sit down under this? Do you say that no one can ever get level with this king devil?"  
"No, I don't say that," said Holmes, and his eyes seemed to be looking far into the future. "I don't say that he can't be beat. But you must give me time—you must give me time!"_

He'd underestimated, even then. It would be two interminable years before the spider was finally crushed. Forever it seemed, but the three years that followed as he unravelled Moriarty's web were far longer.

Only one thread remained. Impatience made Holmes' false nose itch. His stack of books grew heavier.

He stepped to the doctor's threshold. At last, it was time.


	17. The Yellow Face

**[The Yellow Face](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Yellow_Face): Doubt**

"Any truth is better than indefinite doubt," I assured Munro with confidence as we committed ourselves to a felony and finding the truth, come what may.

I am a hypocrite, of course.

Tonight I shall again sit across from the greatest question of my life, and never once risk discovering the true desires of the heart that beats inside him.


	18. The Greek Interpreter

**[The Greek Interpreter](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Greek_Interpreter%22): Work**

He was far gone when we'd found him. A full hour passed before his dark eyes flickered open and shut, registering his swirling surrounds.

"Mr. Melas? No, lie still, please. We have you."

Holmes patted my back, a quiet congratulations, and knelt next to me to see what answers he could gather in his work now that mine was finished.


	19. The Sign of Four

**[The Sign of Four](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Sign_of_the_Four), Chapters 1-6: Service**

"Don't go," I told him. "I should prefer that you remain." 

This, after our contretemps about intelligence, chemistry, and survival in the stultifying everyday, was not enough to keep him. Only the protests of our new client prevented his flight. 

He was willing to be of "inestimable service" to a beautiful woman, but he would not consider it for me.

 

**[The Sign of Four](http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Sign_of_the_Four), Chapters 7-12: Normal**

With every injection, he tried to block out the suffocating boredom of the world around him. That so-called normal world where people fall in love and marry, where doctors practice medicine and not sharpshooting. Where the greatest danger of one's evening is usually being late for dinner and is never poisoned blow darts.

Seven percent had never seemed so low.


	20. The Hound of the Baskervilles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **For Chapters 1-7:** Poor Charles was terrified in that house.  
>  **For Chapters 8-15:** The moment before Holmes and Watson realize Stapleton has killed not their client, but Selden, the criminal.

**[The Hound of the Baskervilles](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles), Chapters 1-7: Legacy**

"I'm being hunted, James. It is my legacy, my birthright. This cold hall of stone and shadow, and a sentence of fear and death for my family's crimes. Ah, God! What hope can exist now?"

"Charles, please, you must calm yourself! These are legends, fairy-tales. No one is hunting you. You are safe!"

"No. I shall never know safety again."

**[The Hound of the Baskervilles](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Hound_of_the_Baskervilles), Chapters 8-15: Faith**

"Holmes, we cannot carry him all the way to the Hall." 

The tears Watson was trying to hide were audible in his voice. 

I felt empty and cold, hollow to my heart. The crumpled, broken man at my feet trusted us to protect him. He'd trusted _me_. And this was what I had to show for his faith.


	21. The Copper Beeches

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Violet Hunter ends up set up with excellent employment after having virtually no prospects. I had my suspicions for why.

**[The Copper Beeches](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventure_of_the_Copper_Beeches): Judgement**

"You come recommended, Miss Hunter."

"I'm pleased the agency has such compliments."

"Not the agency. You are hired, Miss. You begin teaching next week."

"Sir!" Stunned by the offer, Violet momentarily forgot to say yes. "Not the agency?"

The Walsall School's founder smiled. "No, only a man I owe a unpayable debt. I have good reason to trust his judgement."


	22. The Boscombe Valley Mystery

**[The Boscombe Valley Mystery](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes/The_Boscombe_Valley_Mystery): Strain**

_The deck rolled as another wave crashed over the port side. Men rushed to grab ropes, splashing and shouting. Over the howl of the wind, the ship groaned against the strain._

The only strain I felt was in trying to maintain any attention in this novel instead of on the case. At least its flight across the room was entertaining.


	23. The Stockbroker's Clerk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love the beginning of this story. Holmes and Watson are both so adorably excited to be working together again. I had this mental image of Watson bounding up the stairs to tell his wife before he left.

**[The Stockbroker's Clerk](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Memoirs_of_Sherlock_Holmes/The_Stock-broker%27s_Clerk): Awake**

She was still asleep, so Watson whispered into the darkness. "Mary? Blossom, are you awake?"

"Mmm. What is it? A patient? What time is it?"

"It's only half six. No, please, stay in bed. I'm going out today, but I should be home tonight."

"Should be? Oh." Mary smiled against the pillow. "Give my best to Mr. Holmes, won't you?"


	24. The Naval Treaty

**[The Naval Treaty](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Memoirs_of_Sherlock_Holmes/The_Naval_Treaty): Scratch**

It was hardly _only a scratch_ , despite his claims. The wound was deep, slashing. I did what I could.

"This is a defensive wound. He caught you off-guard."

"I told you, it was clumsiness only. It will not happen again."

"I hope not. If it happened again, I might be trying to save you a stump instead of a scar."


End file.
